This specification describes technologies relating to ranking resources in response to user device queries.
The Internet provides access to a wide variety of information. For example, digital image files, video and/or audio files, as well as web page resources for particular subjects or particular news articles, are accessible over the Internet. With respect to web page resources, many of these resources are designed to facilitate the performing of particular functions, such as banking, booking hotel reservations, shopping, etc., or to provide structured information, such as on-line encyclopedias, movie databases, etc. With the advent of tablet computers and smart phones, native applications that facilitate the performance of the same functions facilitated by the use of web page resources, and additional, different functions, are now being provided in large numbers. Additionally, native applications that do not have websites with synchronous content, such as games, are also very popular on tablet computers and smart phones.
Search engines now also facilitate searching of the native applications along with web pages. Typically, the ranking of native application search results is based on the relevance of the content of the native application, or content for a particular deep link in a native application, to a search query. Additional information, such as whether a particular application is installed on a user device, and/or application information specific to a user device provided with a query, may also be used to process a search query for a search operation.